Teleprompters for Presenters: Pace, Glass and Who Scrolls

A teleprompter looks like a cheat sheet for nervous speakers. It is not. It is stage equipment that solves one problem: saying a prepared script, word for word, while still looking at the audience. News readers, keynote speakers and award hosts use one because their words matter, and so does their eye contact.

The real questions come on the day. How fast should the text move? Who is in charge of the speed? A screen on the floor, or glass in front of the camera? This guide answers them, then shows how it works with the teleprompter built into Cliqer Studio, using only what its documentation says it does.

What a teleprompter actually does

A teleprompter shows your script as large text that moves past a reading line. You read the line that sits on it, and the text rolls on at your pace. Because your eyes stay in one place, you can keep your head up and talk to the room.

That is different from notes, which are reminders you glance at (see speaker notes without looking down). A prompter holds the whole text. Use notes when you know your material. Use a prompter when the exact words are the point: a legal statement, a launch announcement, a scripted awards ceremony, a video recorded in one take.

One honest warning: a prompter makes a speaker who reads badly sound worse. The cure is rehearsal.

Confidence monitor or glass prompter?

The stage version is covered in confidence monitors explained. For the person running the show the practical difference is the mirror: glass flips the picture, so that one screen needs a flipped picture while every other screen stays the right way round. It is where most first setups go wrong.

Write a script that reads aloud well

Most of a good prompter session is decided before anyone turns it on. A script written for reading silently makes a stiff, breathless speaker.

• Write short lines. One idea per line. The line break is where you will breathe.
• Use the words you would say. "We are going to" reads aloud better than "we shall". Read every line out loud as you write it.
• Spell out the awkward bits. Write numbers, names and acronyms the way you will say them.
• Mark the structure. Give every part of the talk a heading so the operator can jump to it. Studio treats a line that starts with # as a section: it is drawn dimmed, without the hash, so the speaker skips it.
• Keep it plain. One font, one colour and good contrast beat any formatting. Accessible presentations covers contrast and pace.

How fast should the scroll be?

It depends on the speaker, the text size and the room. So measure it.

Cliqer's teleprompter helps with the arithmetic. Its Reading speed readout turns the scroll speed into lines a minute, for example "36 lines a minute", and it follows your text size and line spacing. Time left shows how long until the script ends at the current speed, as minutes and seconds, and recalculates the moment you change the speed or jump.

The transport, Reading speed and Time left, on macOS.

Many speaking coaches aim for a steady, unhurried pace and leave room for pauses. That is general guidance, not a Cliqer figure, so trust your own measurement.

Who controls the scrolling?

This decides whether a prompter feels smooth or stressful. There are three common answers.

At a live event an operator is usually best: they hear the laugh, the ad-lib or the wait for applause, and slow or pause the text. It is the same job as a slide operator, compared in slide operator or speaker control and described in show control from the tech table.

A worked example: the teleprompter in Cliqer Studio

Cliqer Studio is the production part of the Cliqer desktop app on Mac and Windows, described in Cliqer Studio, the live production switcher. Its teleprompter is an input, like a camera or a slide, so you can put it on Preview or Program, send it to any output, show it in a multiview, or use it as a layer in a scene. Studio is a native app, drawn with Metal on the Mac and Direct3D on Windows, and its display outputs use the monitor's native mode for the sharpest picture, which is what a speaker reading from a few metres away needs.

A teleprompter on Program, with its inspector, on macOS.

Here is what the teleprompter documentation says it does.

The script

Paste the script into a box, or import a plain text file. It can be up to 262,144 characters, about four hours read aloud. Each line is a paragraph, and a line that starts with # is a section you can jump to.

The look

You set the font, the text size (8 to 400, in pixels of a 1080 high picture), line spacing, margins, text and background colours, and where the reading line sits. A faint marker band can show it. The defaults are white text on black, size 72, with the reading line a third of the way down.

Speed, direction and jumping

Press Play or Pause, set the speed from 0 to 1000 pixels a second, or nudge it 10 at a time with Slower and Faster. Reverse scrolls backwards. Jump keys go to the top, a page or a line either way, a click on a section name goes straight there, and the Position bar jumps anywhere.

Live, not saved

Play, speed, direction and position are live and are not saved with the show: an opened show starts every teleprompter at the top, paused. The scroll runs whether or not it is on Program, so you can cue it on Preview and take it already moving.

Set up a prompter for an event in ten minutes

Studio runs in the desktop app on the computer that hosts the show. A browser cannot host, though phones and browsers can join a room.

Mirroring for glass

A beam-splitter flips the image. Studio mirrors in two places, and they do different jobs.

If the teleprompter only feeds the glass, mirror the input. If the same picture also goes elsewhere, mirror the output, so only the glass is flipped. Both are free on every Studio plan. The output setting is in the Projection section, described in the outputs documentation.

Mirror left-right and Mirror top-bottom in an output's Projection section, on macOS.

Control it from the tech table

Nine teleprompter actions are in Studio's External Control list, so a keyboard, MIDI, OSC, a Stream Deck or Companion can run them: play, reverse, speed, speed step, seek, move, home, jump section and go to section.

The documentation suggests a fader on Prompter speed, Prompter play on one key, and page forward on a foot pedal. If you already run a Stream Deck for presentations, the approach carries over.

Two details help. Pause is always free, even on a lapsed plan. And a script or look edit made while the teleprompter is on air waits for the Take, while play, speed and position act at once.

Time the whole talk, not only the script

A teleprompter tells the speaker what to say, not how long is left in the session. For that, give the stage a clock. Cliqer Timer is our run-of-show and stage timer, introduced in Cliqer Timer, the stage timer, and stage timers that keep speakers on time covers the habits that make it work.

The two meet at the glass: a Timer screen link accepts a mirror option (vertical, horizontal or both), described on the Timer screens and links page as for teleprompter glass.

The Studio window: the prompter is one more tile in the library of inputs.

What Studio's teleprompter does not do

The documentation lists what is not built:

• Word, RTF and PDF import. Only plain text imports. Copy and paste works from any source.
• Formatting inside a script. There is no bold, colour or per-line size. The only mark-up is # for sections.
• Control from the Cliqer Remote phone app. The prompter actions are not on the phone's list yet. Cliqer Remote still controls slides from iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch and Android and Wear OS; bind the prompter to keys, MIDI or a Stream Deck instead.

The scroll runs at the speed you set. It does not follow the speaker's voice.

Rehearse it like a show

• Run the script once at full speed with the operator, not only the speaker.
• Agree signals: a raised hand to slow down, a nod to jump.
• Test the glass and the mirror with the real lens before the audience arrives.
• Keep a printed copy for a failure. A prompter is equipment, and equipment fails.
• Use co-presenting handoffs when several speakers share one script.

Plans and what you need

The teleprompter is part of Studio titles, on the free trial and every plan from Studio HD up, and counts as one source. Keys are open to every Studio plan; MIDI and Stream Deck buttons need Studio control surfaces. See plans and limits and pricing, then download the desktop app.

FAQ

Try it on your next event

Pick the display, write for the ear, measure the pace, decide who holds the speed control, and rehearse with the real glass. On Mac or Windows, Cliqer Studio puts the prompter, outputs and controls in one app, beside a full switcher and an audio mixer with routing.